The global season is back on the agenda as rugby authorities look at ways of addressing the physical toll the sport is taking on professional players by arranging the calendar so that minimum rest periods are guaranteed. The idea was last floated seven years ago and quickly sank because of entrenched positions but the growing awareness about concussion has prompted renewed efforts to persuade administrators from both hemispheres to think again and the outcome may be the Six Nations starting at least a month later on the schedule within a few years.

Saracens have taken the innovative approach of taping sensor chips behind the ears of their players to monitor the impact on the head in a tackle or collision. They started the initiative on Saturday during the home game against London Irish: data was downloaded after the match but the club is hoping that an improvement in the technology will lead to real-time information later this year.

Premiership Rugby plans to speak to Saracens about the move and will be monitoring the results but medical experts involved in the sport believe the problem of concussion and other serious injuries will only be brought into check if the demands on players, in terms of the matches they play and the training they are required to do, are reduced.

World Rugby has made looking at the global calendar a priority and meetings have been held at chief executive level as well as with player associations. The Six Nations’ resolute refusal to even consider moving their tournament was one of the problem points the last time an attempt was made to better harmonise the sport in the two hemispheres, but the mood has changed.

The meetings of the chief executives, together with progress made at Six Nations and Sanzar level, have encouraged World Rugby that there is scope for change. The next step will be to involve clubs in the discussions, something that would not have been countenanced even a few years ago, but there is an appreciation now that if progress is to be made over issues such as the global season and player welfare, all those involved at the top end of the game have to be part of the decision-making process.

A season that was better structured would suit the clubs whose 2015-16 league campaigns will be radically affected by the World Cup. While it is highly unlikely that club tournaments in Europe will ever be played in blocks, the intent is to make the programme less fragmented than it is now and to ensure that players have a mid-season break.

Change would not happen quickly, probably not before the 2019 World Cup. “What is different this time is that the question being asked around the table is not why but why not,” said one union official. “The research into concussion that has been made in the last couple of years has shown how vital it is that we look at the playing schedule, and with it the training that players do and which accounts for 50% of injuries.

“It is early days but what I think is instructive is that nobody is setting anything in stone, not even when the Six Nations is played. Now that the unions have agreed to take this forward the clubs will become involved: we are better together and while the aim of everyone will be financially viable, it will not be at the expense of player welfare.”

World Rugby was accused a couple of years ago of being slow to recognise the perils of concussion but the processes it has put in place have been copied by other sports and the number of players carrying on with a head injury later diagnosed as concussion has dropped considerably.

“The nature of rugby is attritional and concussion is part of that,” said James Robson, the head of medical services at the Scottish Rugby Union, in an interview with the New York Times. “Look at the number of players who require some form of restorative surgery in a season that hardly ever ends. You could be radical and have some form of exercise passport that allowed them to train for only so many hours a week: technology allows you to monitor players that way through tags.

“Unless we get a global agreement it will be difficult to bring about change but if we do not reduce the toll on players we will eventually see a shortening of careers.”